Craft brews taking over in Edmonton suds scene

Various varieties of beer bottles are seen at Alley Kat Brewery Co. at 9929 60th Avenue in Edmonton, Alta., on Wednesday, May 14, 2014. The craft brewery is the longest running microbrewery in Edmonton and the fourth oldest brewery in Alberta. Ian Kucerak/Edmonton Sun/QMI Agency

Suds from local microbreweries are all the buzz in the city centre, though giant brewers like Budweiser still reign supreme on the outskirts.

Craft beers have spiked in popularity across North America the last five years, and Hudsons Canadian Tap House marketing director Karli Anderson said bars need to keep up with the trend if they want to survive.

“The landscape sure has changed,” she said, noting that just three years ago, craft beers were only on tap at a few select spots in Edmonton.

“We have to go crafty to stay in the beer game.”

Anderson said craft beers, especially house brews from Henry Hudson’s Brewing Co., are No. 1 at locations throughout Edmonton and most popular at Hudsons’ Whyte and downtown bars.

Sports fans, however, buck the trend.

“If hockey season’s on, people are not always going for the craft beers,” she said. “We notice our sales change from craft to the Buds and Canadians.”

Liquor Depot spokesman Ryan Engen said Budweiser is the King of Beers in Edmonton, as the No. 1 seller at each of the store’s locations by a fair margin. It’s followed by Kokanee, Molson Canadian and Coors Light.

He said craft beers make up about 10 per cent of overall sales at Liquor Depot, though that number is “certainly growing,” especially on Whyte and downtown.

“Definitely, craft beer is stronger in the areas where it’s closer to a university,” Engen said.

“Also, in higher-income demographics, craft beer does better.”

Jordan Beatty said imports rule the roost at the downtown Sherlock Holmes pub he manages, with craft beers also out-selling macro breweries. Guinness is the pub’s top seller, though people switch to lighter beers like Blanche de Chambly and Shock Top when the patio opens for summer.

It’s a stark contrast from his former job at the bar’s east-side location.

“I spent a fair amount of time in the Capilano area and you’ve got piles of guys that are coming in and they want their Bud pint or they want their Coors Light pint or they want their Canadian pint,” he said.

Neil Herbst, spokesman for popular local brewer Alley Kat, said local beer drinkers have far more awareness of craft beers than they did five years ago.

“We’ve seen a big change,” he said, adding it’s partly due to Molson shutting down its Edmonton brewery and Labbatt — which still brews here — being bought out.

“When we first started up, there was a lot of loyalty in this city to Molson and Labbatt.”

Most Alley Kat is sold on Whyte and downtown, while sales in east and north Edmonton are not so strong. Alley Kat is starting to sell more elsewhere, though, with sales rising significantly into rural Alberta.

Herbst said the craft beer revolution is linked to a wider variety of styles and flavour profiles. Small brewers can afford to experiment more with recipes, whereas it’s risky for major corporations that are brewing for a mass audience.

“It wasn’t that many years ago that, when you thought of beer, you just thought of some sort of blond, fizzy lager without much taste. And that’s definitely been changed by the craft movement,” he said.

Alley Kat’s apricot-flavoured lager Aprikat is the company’s top seller, with its grapefruit-infused Summer Squeeze coming in close second.

Ian Macintosh, sales rep for local brewer Yellowhead, said downtown and Whyte Ave “definitely” stocks the most Yellowhead.

“Once you get to the far west you get more chain/franchise type places that have agreements in place with Labbatt or Molson, so they won’t have us on tap as much,” he said.

The four-year-old brewery is making headway in the suburbs. One Leduc bar, Burnsy O’Flannagans, took Molson off tap in favour of Yellowhead and customers were quick to switch allegiance.

“I think a lot of it is just changing people’s perception. A lot of people are stuck in their ways,” said Macintosh.

“Once you can show them that we can do something less expensive, and better quality product, naturally carbonated, preservative free, unpasteurized, people are really blown away by it and tend to really like it.”

Sherbrooke Liquor Store, which boasts Canada’s largest selection with 1,500 different beers, can attest to the growing popularity of microbreweries.

Naming Phillips, Red Racer, and Big Rock as a few top sellers, the store’s beer manager Erica Francis says local and Canadian craft beers have “absolutely” become more popular in the last couple years.

“We have people who come in every couple months from Saskatoon and stock up, and people come from all over the city to get the things that they can’t get anywhere else,” she said.

Beer mindsets:

American market research company Mindset Media suggests beverage choices say more about us than our income bracket.

The company conducted a survey of 2,600 beer drinkers, reported by AdAge, which found craft beer drinkers are often more intellectually curious, have less sense of responsibility, and are more likely to buy organic food.

Budweiser drinkers are described as more likely to be sensible, practical and have an aversion to authority. They’re apparently 42% more likely to drive a truck than the average person, which could help explain the glut of pickups on Alberta roads.

Edmonton’s beer history:

• 1894 — Edmonton Brewing and Malting Company is established in 1894 and opens a three-storey brick building in the river valley in 1905. Its first commercially brewed beer is named Yellowhead after Iroquois-Métis Pierre Bostonais, who was nicknamed “Tête Jaune” or “Yellowhead” for his unusually fair hair.

• 1911 — The company is successfully sued by St. Louis brewer Anheuser-Busch because the label on its Capitol Beer is too similar to the label on Budweiser bottles.

• 1916 — In the middle of the World War One, Albertans vote for prohibition and the Edmonton Brewing and Malting Company shuts down.

• 1924 — Alberta votes to end the booze ban, and local businessmen create the New Edmonton Breweries. The new brewery is hit hard by the Great Depression and is sold in 1929.

• 1925 — The MacDonald Hotel becomes Edmonton’s first licensed hotel. A quart of scotch is priced at $5.25, and an imperial quart of high-quality whisky is $7.25.

• 1950 — The province makes it legal to issue liquor licences to clubs, provided they offer regular meal service. It’s not until 1967 that Alberta let men and women use “beverage rooms” together.

• 1993 — The province announces the privatization of the liquor retail industry. Ten years later, product selection had increased from 2,200 to 11,353 and the number of liquor stores jumped from 208 to 1,010.

–Sourced from the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission and the Edmonton Heritage Council

Craft brews taking over in Edmonton suds scene

Suds from local microbreweries are all the buzz in the city centre, though giant brewers like Budweiser still reign supreme on the outskirts.

Craft beers have spiked in popularity across North America the last five years, and Hudsons Canadian Tap House marketing director Karli Anderson said bars need to keep up with the trend if they want to survive.

“The landscape sure has changed,” she said, noting that just three years ago, craft beers were only on tap at a few select spots in Edmonton.

“We have to go crafty to stay in the beer game.”

Anderson said craft beers, especially house brews from Henry Hudson’s Brewing Co., are No. 1 at locations throughout Edmonton and most popular at Hudsons’ Whyte and downtown bars.